An Idiot's Guide to Creating a Mary-Sue
by Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived
Summary: So for my current SYOT, I was surprised at the number of people that didn't know what a Mary-Sue was. The fake character that we're exploring today is probably the biggest Mary-Sue/Katniss Wannabe out there, so read and be educated. Warning: Extremely sarcastic piece of writing.
1. Hermosa

**A/N: Hey guys! Just so you know, this entire guide will be very sarcastic, and what not to do. If you do any of these things, your character will most likely die in the bloodbath. Also, this is exclusively a guide for a female protagonist, because we know that those are always the best characters.**

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**Section I: Coming up with a character profile**

There are a few key pieces of information that we need to know. For example, the character's name, age, district, appearance and whether they were reaped or volunteered, and for what purpose or their reaction. This seems like a lot, so let's start with the simplest.

_Name: _The name should have a lot of meaning to the character. We're probably going to want our character to be beautiful, smart, kind and selfless. If you put this all into Google Translate and translate it to Spanish, it comes down to _Hermosa Desinteresada Tipo Inteligente. _As this name is really long and hard to remember, this will be a perfect name for our protagonist.

_Age:_ Since this is the Hunger Games, unless it's a headcannon Quarter Quell, our tribute is going to be between the ages of 12 and 18. Since Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and Johanna were all 16 when they won their games, our character should probably be 16 as well.

_District: _District 12 is probably the best way to go. Seam District 12, because that's where Katniss was from. If you don't want to copy the book, you could also do District 1, as they are very wealthy, and their tributes are known to be classically beautiful, which is something we definitely want for our protagonist.

_Appearance:_ Brown hair is over rated, and too common. We want our tribute to stand out, so it would be best to give her pale blonde, raven black or fiery red hair. It also must fall to her waist in a cascade of soft waves. Red hair is usually the way to go, because most people in the Seam have dark hair, and most people in District 1 have blonde hair, so giving our character red hair will set her apart from not only those in the arena, but those in her district as well. Eyes are another big factor. District 1 natives have green or blue eyes, and Seam-goers have gray eyes, and brown eyes are far too common. That leaves us to defy nature completely and make up our own eye color. If you don't want to be too dramatic, some people have purple eyes in the world, and some have one blue eye and one green eye. Our tribute should probably have one purple eye and one green eye, both of which are flecked with blue, silver, gold and gray. They might also change color depending on her mood. She should also be tall, maybe around 5'8", and despite living in poverty, she should have a full and curvaceous figure.

_How they got into the Games: _It's your best bet to have your tribute volunteer in place of a younger or disabled sibling. If you want to put your own spin on it, have your female tribute volunteer in place of her younger brother, even though that violates all rules of the Hunger Games.

So let's review.

_Name: _Hermosa Destinteresada Tipo Intelligente.

_Age: _16

_Gender: _Female

_District: _12

_Backup district in case the first one is filled: _1

_Appearance: _Waist length fiery red wavy hair that glistens in the sun and when she moves, one purple eye and one green eye, both flecked with many other colors that change color depending on her mood, long legs, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, perfect skin, perfect body, 5'8", pretty but doesn't believe it when people tell her.

Volunteered for disabled younger brother.

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**Section II: Friends and family**

Now that we've gotten the basics down, we should develop a family for our character. Keep in mind that Katniss's family was quite dysfunctional, as her father was dead and her mother was insane. The best thing to do is to develop individual stories for each family member and worry if they match up later. Nobody's going to notice... Right?

_Father: _Katniss always said that she was closer to her father than her mother, so it should be this way with your character as well. Also, your character's father should probably be dead, so that the person closest to the protagonist is no longer in her life and the audience now feels empathy for our character. Keeping up with the whole "Spanish name meanings" theme, her father's name will be Muerte, or Death.

_Mother: _After Katniss's father died, her mother went insane. We don't want to copy the book, so we should probably kill her mother as well. Perhaps her mother died giving birth to her youngest sibling. This leaves us to have our character and her siblings live with an abusive relative, or on he streets without a guardian. We'll get into those options later. The Community Home is probably the most viable option, but people seem to forget about that, so we're not even going to consider it. Her mother's name is Parto, or Childbirth.

_Siblings: _The priority is to make your character stand out, and at 16 years old, your character is most likely the oldest sibling. We also mentioned a disabled brother earlier, the one that Hermosa D. P. Intelligente volunteered for, even though it would break most rules. Since we want this character to pale in comparison to Hermosa D. P. Intelligente, his name should be something simple, and easy to remember, such as Bob, Phil, Tom or Billy. He should look nothing like his sister, as that would make way too much sense, so he can have brown hair and brown eyes. He should be 12 years old, and have no tesserae taken out, because despite his character living a generally shitty life, and his sister is just awesome enough to take all of hers out so he doesn't have to. We're not going to go into much detail on him, because he's a side character. Also, he should probably die at the end of the story to keep up with the whole "Everyone I love is dead" thing. Does he remind you of Prim yet? Good.

_Abusive guardian: _As I said before, Hermosa D. P. Intelligente and Tom can either live with an abusive aunt, uncle or grandparent, or live alone on the street. A way that you can get the best of both worlds, so to speak, is to have your characters living with their abusive guardian, then run away from there to get a job at an early age, even though it is illegal. This would be helpful, because when your character runs away, there will probably be a fight, along with several fights beforehand, giving Hermosa D. P. Intelligente an advantage in hand to hand combat. Also, living on the streets gives her a sense of independence, and, if you're lucky, survival skills. It will probably also help if she hunts with a bow to support her and Tom.

_Friends: _It would be best for Hermosa to not have any friends, because it adds to the plot. A reason for this could be because Hermosa is homeless, and had to stop going to school. However, everyone should secretly admire her.

_Love Interest: _Hermosa is going to have to be in love with her district partner, who we'll name... Peter. He's loved her since they were 5 years old and remembers every little detail about her.

So again, let's review.

Hermosa D. P. Intelligente's father, Muerte, died tragically in a mining accident the day Hermosa found out her mother was pregnant. Her mother became depressed and ultimately died giving birth to the child, who Hermosa decided to name Tom, and they found out that Tom had mental disabilities later in life. She and Tom went on to live with their abusive Aunt and Uncle Fletunia and Flernon. They eventually ran away, and decided to be homeless. They were short on food and money, so Hermosa took up hunting. She doesn't have any friends, because no one in the entire district is a decent enough person to see past the fact that she's homeless, but everyone is a closeted admirer of Hermosa.

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**Section III: Arriving at the Capitol**

So we've established that your tribute is gorgeous, correct? This means that the stylist and prep team are going to love her, so we don't have to worry about that. We do have to worry about whether the stylist is going to be amazing, or terrible.

_Having an amazing stylist:_ In the event that Hermosa D. P. Intelligente has a great stylist, we need to set some guidelines. She's from District 12, so despite the fact that Katniss said in the first book that Cinna was brand new, and in the second book he was killed, Hermosa's stylist has to be Cinna. Her costume for the chariot rides must have flames, because that's what Cinna does. And her nickname must be The Girl On Fire.

_Having a terrible stylist: _If you want to avoid Cinna entirely, so as not to copy the book, we can give Hermosa D. P. Intelligente a completely terrible stylist. Since we're using Spanish name meanings, this stylist's name will be Malestilista, or Bad-Stylist. Since Hermosa is so attractive, it would only make sense for Malestilista to take full advantage of this. Katniss said that a few times, the stylists would dress the District 12 tributes up in nothing but coal dust, so that's what we'll do here.

_The Parade: _Regardless of whether Hermosa has Cinna or Malestilsta, she needs to be a fan favorite, because her beauty captivates the audience. She will get hundreds of roses thrown at her chariot, and she'll catch many of them and blow endless kisses.

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**Section IV: The Training Center**

_Picking up skills: _As we said earlier, Hermosa hunts for her and Tom, so she's already an expert at archery. This also means that she's good at knot tying, edible plants, speed, stamina and agility. But it also leaves room for improvement. We can have her go to swords, so that she can pick up a close range weapon. She will definitely pick this up within minutes and beat the most skilled trainer. She will be asked to join the Career alliance, but turn them down because of her morals. She'll also go to every survival station and masters them as well.

_Individual session: _So let's review: She knows how to shoot an arrow, sword fight and all of the survival stations. Since survival stations are boring, she'll just show the Gamemakers her archery and sword fighting skills. She should probably also have some time left, so she can quickly pick up knife throwing at the spur of the moment, and hit every bulls-eye. This session should get her a 12, which won't make her a target at all.

_Interviews: _There is a serious flaw with choosing one interview angle, and that is that the readers and the Capitol can't understand your full personality. She's obviously selfless and brave since she volunteered for Tom. She's also intelligent, because she knows everything there is to know about survival stations. She's rebellious, because she hunts in the woods, and, oh yeah, she's sexy. So her interview angle should be selfless, brave, intelligent, rebellious and sexy. Also, her dress should either be on fire, if she has Cinna, or just more coal dust if she has Malestilista.

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**Section V: The Games**

_The bloodbath: _So, we've established that Hermosa is probably the most important person in the world, right? So, she should go into the bloodbath, get a bow, arrows, a sword and a bag, then run away without killing or being killed or injured. After she runs a significant distance from the Cornucopia, she should look through her bag, and find a full water bottle, several containers of food, some rope, extra socks, a blowgun, wire, a knife, iodine and a hairbrush.

_Allies: _Hermosa wasn't planning on allies, but she runs into a twelve year old boy from District 11 that reminds her of Tom. Together, they make a plan to overthrow the Careers, and the little boy dies in the process. This should bring them to the final 6. Then, she should go off in search of her district partner Peter that is madly in love with her.

_The finale: _In the end, it should come down to Hermosa and Peter as the final two. Neither can bear to kill the other, so Hermosa demands that they both win. Rather than the Gamemakers killing one of them, or sending mutts after them, they allow two Victors.

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**The End!**


	2. Disclaimer

Hey, so I just wanted to clear something up. It's perfectly fine if your tribute has red hair OR dead parents OR a disabled sibling OR an abusive relative OR they are living in poverty OR their name has meaning OR they fall in love. Putting all of these together, along with the other aspects mentioned is what makes a Sue a Sue. That will be all.


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